The Amtrak crash in Philadelphia this week was preventable; a technology called Positive Train Control could have stopped it. But Amtrak is so starved and rotten that there's no chance we'll see that any time soon. If Congress doesn't want to pay for a quality rail system—and considering it just cut Amtrak's budget, it obviously doesn't—it's time for a radical solution. Sell the whole thing to a transportation visionary. Sell it to Elon Musk.

Or, heck, give it to him. Amtrak loses money and it needs a ton of investment, but there are some real assets there. And we know that as soon as Amtrak drops its money-losing cross-country routes, it would be profitable.

This Isn't PrivatizationThis would be different from "privatizing" Amtrak. "Privatizing," as we saw with the British railway system, usually leads to a confusing, corrupt bidding process where rent-seekers do their best to extract short-term profit by providing the lowest possible quality of service under the terms of arcane, unreadable public-interest contracts. Then they get turfed out for other rent-seekers who try to do the same. It's just too complicated.

In this case, we're giving the whole thing as a unit, with no requirements, to one supervillain-like billionaire who really likes transportation and has an extremely long time-frame. You see how that's different.

What would Musk do? Well, he'd start by killing anything he doesn't control. Far too much Amtrak service is dependent on the goodwill of freight railroads that don't particularly want it there. Although the freight railroads are great for transporting mile-long coal trains, they've proven over the years to be poor partners and poor stewards for passenger trains.

So let's say that Musk starts running his railroad along Amtrak's owned or leased tracks, and gets cooperation from some states. That gives Musk lines from Boston to Washington, up to Albany, NY, out to Harrisburg, PA, and the Chicago-Detroit line. (The fact that Amtrak controls so little of its own infrastructure is a big part of why it's so awful.) This is already a problem, as Musk has no love for the East Coast, but maybe this would be his big East Coast play.

(Killing those cross-country routes, by the way, has always been Congress's greatest Amtrak-related hypocrisy. The government doesn't want to subsidize Amtrak, but it also wants to mandate that Amtrak do money-losing things.)

I can see Musk starting to talk about installing some sort of Hyperloop between Boston, New York, and Washington. Did you know that there are about 280 round-trip flights a day between New York, Boston, and Washington alone? A few of those passengers are connecting to international flights, but a true high-speed transit service could steal almost all of those passengers, just like we've seen high-speed rail killing short-haul air travel in France, Japan, and across the English Channel.

At the very least Musk would integrate and synergize new technologies with the rail system in ways we need, but can't have right now. Positive train control would be a must, but we'd also (for sure) have many more for-profit entertainment options on the trains, and possibly self-driving Tesla Uber hubs under major train stations.

Tesla, Uber, and Trains Go Together Very WellWait—what? Musk understands that our self-driving automotive future is an intermodal future. Train lines are spines which terminate at hubs where self-driving cars emanate out like spokes. That's not only efficient and environmentally friendly, it could be quite profitable for someone visionary enough and enough of a long-term thinker to really invest.

Related

Sure, the real estate issues might be nightmarish, but maybe there are land swaps Musk could perform—remember, he'd be picking up a lot of very valuable real estate with Amtrak's tracks and stations.

Is it totally insane to give over our national rail system to a billionaire who likes to play trains? Sure. But we know Musk really likes to play trains, and unlike with Hyperloop and SpaceX, he'd be getting a train set that actually works on day one.

Yes, this is a horribly bad idea. I haven't heard any better ones, though. A billionaire's plaything might be the best we can hope from for our national rail system. It can't be worse than what we have now.

About the Author

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 13 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, hosts our One Cool Thing daily Web show, and writes opinions on tech and society.
Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer. Other than ... See Full Bio

Get Our Best Stories!

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.